Chapter 13.
City of Blood.
"When you reached rockbottom, it's a long way to get back up."-Unknown Author
"Oliver."
At the sound of his mother's terrified voice, Oliver opened his eyes to see her and Thea had their hands tied up behind their backs, they were on their knees and they were scared to death. They were sacred to death. Ironic, isn't? being held hostage at your own home. If there's anything he learned, is that you could never anticipate when your enemy is going to strike. It could be at your workplace, your favorite club or home. Nobody is safe these days; the world is a very cruel place. Then a man who was about Oliver's height walked up to him and crouched before him with a curious look. He had short black hair with blue eyes.
"You know who I am." He said, it didn't take long to recognize him.
"Paul." He hissed,
"You are a very complex person, Oliver Queen. Even complex than the people I know. " Paul remarked, "But I suppose that comes with the territory after spending 5 years on a island."
"What do you want?" he sneered,
"Well, I thought that we could chat. Get to know each other. Be BFFs." Oliver didn't say anything to give him more ammo. He just glared at him, if looks could kill, he'd be a rotten corpse by now.
"Ah, the silent treatment? That's fine." he shrugged as he stood up and walked towards Thea. He stroked her cheek that caused her to flinch.
"She's cute. My, she looks so gorgeous." he remarked,
"Leave them out of this. if you wanna kill me, then do it." he pleaded, Paul tilted his head in fascination at his request.
"You know I contemplated killing you first but I can't. Slade would pissed if I killed you because in death, a man has nothing left to fear." Paul declined knowing full well what his intentions were. He paced back and forth for a few minutes thinking of what his next move will be. And then he had his a ha moment as if he knew what he was gonna do next.
"There is something that's been on my mind recently. Something I wanted to tell you so badly, Thea. Remember when Laurel Lance brought up your mothers affair with Malcolm Merlyn at her trial? Well, I'm afraid there was more to it than just infidelity." That sent an unnerving chill down Oliver spine as alarms went off in his head. No, he wouldn't. He doesn't know does he? But that arrogant smirk that was plastered on his face told him a whole story, he knew.
"What you're talking about?" Thea questioned, Paul pulled out a piece of paper from his jacket and showed it to her.
"This is a convert paternity test. It turned out that Robert Queen isn't your biological father. Malcolm is." And that was it. The secret that Oliver fought so hard for keeping it from Thea was now exposed. Thea looked like her world was crumbling and everything she knew before this had disappeared.
"No." she whispered, tears starting to build in her eyes.
"Yes." he nodded grimly in confirmation.
"No. No."
"I'm really sorry that you had to find out this. I really am. And you know the worse part about this was? Oliver knew." Her head snapped up to him at the mention of her brother.
"What?" The shock of finding out about her biological father slowly turned to anger at the revelation, Oliver knew in that moment that there was no chance of lying out of this one.
"Let me show you." he pulled out an IPad from his jacket and started to play a video.
"You need to listen." No. He remember those exact words, it was the evening after her mother's announcement of running for Mayor. How did he get this?
"For the past year, I have stood by your side and I have fought, because I wanted to believe that you weren't this… Monster. And I needed to believe that I still had a mother."
"You do, Oliver…Oliver, I only lied about Thea to protect her from Malcolm."
Oliver closed his eyes not wanting to see this anymore and he didn't want his sister to watch this .
"No, you… you lied because that is what you do. And that is who you are, Mom. Lies. And now you've made a liar out of me. Because Thea could never find out about Merlyn. And she could never know the truth about us. Which is that as of right now, we have no relationship."
Once Paul had paused the video, he tucked it back in his jacket.
"God, I think I'm starting to cry." Paul wiped the fake tears out of his eyes with his fingers. He looked between the queen members and each had different look on their faces. Moira's look was deflated, Thea's was pissed and Oliver's was gulity. Yep, his work here is done. "Well, I see you three have a lot to talk about. I'll leave you to it." he left the living room somewhat satisfied of his work.
Jericho looked out to a group of people that was gathered in few days later observed the funeral from the tree line. It was the funeral of Moira Queen, maiden name, Dearden. Born 1964, dead, April 24 2014. It brought a lot of emotions, as the scene in front of him was eerily familiar to when his mother was buried when he was just 17. He was lost without her when she died, she was a mother that loved him dearly, she cared for him deeply. She always told him that if you want something in life, you gotta work for it. Nothing ever comes for free which was why she wanted him to do something with his also wanted to save Gotham because she had seen kids at his age hanging with the wrong crowd which was why she went to study law at so that she can help those whom had been on the wrong side of the law for the wrong reasons.
Moving back to the present, everybody who knew Queen Matriarch was there. Her ex husband Walter, her daughter Thea, Felicity, Bruce, Talia, even Officer Lance with both of his daughters were there. All except Oliver whose chair was occupied by a pink rose. Guess he couldn't be there and quite frankly Jericho doesn't blame him for it. He wondered what kind of mindset he was in now that both of his parents are dead.
He sighed as he left the tree line and headed to her last resting place where he joined the others. He watched the casket being lowered down to the final resting place when he felt a hand intertwining with his. He looked to see Barbara who had appeared by his side.
Once the funeral was finished, everyone went to the reception where they had begun talking amongst them. Gossip, rumors, etc was swarming all over the place. Jericho and Barb were having a bit of conversation of their own.
"I'm sorry Thea. Your mother was a good woman." Bruce was giving his condolences to her, she hadn't really spoken to anyone in the last few days since the murder of her mother murder.
"Thank you, Mr. Wayne." She nodded in appreciation although it didn't show it on face. It was blank.
"It was awful." Jericho summed up the events that occurred few days ago.
"Yep." Barb didn't object to it. It was, quite honestly. "But… there are worse ways to go." He knew she tried to see the positives of the tragedy but it was outmatched by the negativity. Still he couldn't help but feel touched by her attempt. She always tried to think positive and look towards the future. It may be naïve to some but that was the reason he fell in love with her. The fact remains that the bad guys won that day because and now Sebastian blood is the new Mayor of Starling City.
"Even still, her kids watching her get killed by Slade, pretty traumatizing." He said and Barbara felt that she had to change subject at that moment.
"Speaking of kids, have you seen Oliver?" she asked,
"No, nobody has seen him in days." He shook his head no in reply. Ok, that was obvious but where could he be? that was the big question. According to Felicity, there hasn't been transaction on his bank account, no flight bookings, nothing. It's like he became a ghost.
"Where do you think he is?" she inquired,
"Don't know. but I get the feeling that he's gonna do something stupid." He admitted,
"I agree." Sara said who appeared next to him by hide he wasn't startled. "Which is why we need to find him first."
"Where's Laurel?" He looked around to see where her sister was but she was nowhere to be seen.
"She's talking to Talia." She said, that surprised him a bit.
"What for?" Jericho inquired, Sara shrugged having no idea why.
"NO clue. but I get the feeling it was because our new mayor paid a visit."
"Blood?" Jericho looked around
"To pay his respects or so she had told me." She told him, "he left soon after."
"I'm afraid it's more than that."
"Agreed."
After the reception was over, Jericho and Barb went back to their hotel room they share and changed their clothes to more comfortable ones. While Barb was changing hers, Jericho sat down and put his hands under his chin as his elbows rested on his thighs going into. Man, things aren't looking good right now Slade and other probably moved into another hideout, God knows where, Oliver is missing, Nyssa is asleep recovering from her injuries and Jericho… well, let's just say that he's on a rollercoaster.
"What you're thinking?" he turned to see Barb rolling out of the bathroom and went to him with a concerned look.
"Well, about how everything in the past couple months has turned into hell." Jericho said, "God, this is one of those time where I just want to throw in the towel."
"Hey don't think like that. we'll stop them because we always do." She reassured rubbing his back,
"All the evidence to the contrary." He sighed, that was the moment she knew that something had happened in her absence.
"What did you do?" she questioned,
"It's not what I didn't do. I've killed again. I get this… Uncontrollable hunger for blood and I want it to satisfy it. It feels so good and I hate it." he'd expected her to be disgusted and wince in horror of what he had done for the past month but to his surprise she didn't react or recoil at all.
"Go on." she urged him
"I feel this… anger. This rage, Like a caged animal waiting to be unleashed and if you provoke it long enough, you get to see it in all its glory. I'm slipping away, Barb. And lately I'm feeling like I'm becoming like Dad." She didn't say anything for a good two minutes after his confession. After that, she grabbed his chin making him to look her in her eyes.
"Listen to me, You are not him. You've shown it time and time again. Your father had been given many chances to break his addiction to the Lazarus and yet he continued to use it. it made him lose his humanity."
Just because you are from the same family doesn't mean that they are the same. Barbara knows it when he told who he was in Arkham City and still stood by his side in. granted she was angry but she was mature enough to understand Ra's and his son are different persons. "You realized that and left the league to redeem yourself. Let us help you."
"How?" he asked,
"I don't know. But we'll figure it out. together" she stated, "I won't give up on you. Not now, not ever."
"How is she?" it was just few hours after the murder of Moira Queen by Slade Wilson at the queen's mansion, her body was taken to the morgue and her children were giving the Police their statement about what happened at the SCPD. Meanwhile Jericho took Nyssa back to the Arrowcave underneath the verdant and went on to remove bullet that was stuck in her lower back with a little help from diggle who had some medical training in the army. Sara held ice packs on her face to ease the swelling of the beating she received and she had to get 20 stitches to her wounds.
"She's stable. I've managed to remove bullet. She's gonna make it."
"Thank God." Sara sighed in relief that she was gonna be ok, it looked dark for a moment or two.
"How's Oliver?"
"Not good. he hasn't spoke a word, Thea on the other hand…" he trailed off, it didn't take a genius to figure out the hidden message behind his statement.
"Right." she nodded in understanding.
"Listen, uh, remember our talk yesterday? About I should focus more on myself? I went to Oliver's and finally had the courage to break up with him."
"How did it go?" he questioned, he didn't expect this revelation from her. not after what just took place.
"It went ok."
"Well I'm heading back to Starling General. Barbara's checking herself out." he put on his jacket and headed up stairs to the upper floor but not before asking Sara a very important question because he knew that the reason why Sara stayed here in Starling was not only because of her but because Oliver asked her to.
"Hey Sara?" he called,
"Yeah?" she inquired
"What are you gonna do now?" he asked, she thought about it for a moment.
"We all got our roles to play, Jericho." She answered, "See ya in the morning." She went to get a chair and sat towards Nyssa lying on the table. She tuckered a lock of her hair behind her right ear and kissed her forehead praying to the heavens that Nyssa will be ok.
"Rest well Beloved." She whispered.
"I can dress my self, Sara."
"You almost died. Let me help you."
"I'm fine." Nyssa soon regretted those words as she bent down to put her heels on, she instantly felt a aching pain in her back causing her to wince. But she didn't make a sound though her expression was showing otherwise.
"Sure you are." Sara huffed shaking her head, always wanting to do things by herself. Nyssa reluctantly let her help putting on her civilian clothes
they heard someone clearing the throat. They turned around to see Talia and Jericho.
"Talia."
"Nyssa." Not sure what think or do They ran towards each other and hugged one and other. The two daughters of the demon were reunited again. Jericho couldn't help but joy for her sisters reunion. He knew that Talia had missed her dearly so it was nice to see what was before him.
"How have I longed to see you again." Nyssa whispered, her voice cracking.
"As have I sister." The feelings were mutual. After a while the sisters separated from each other.
"Brother." Nyssa acknowledged her little brother's presence
"It's good to see you on your feet." He said,
"Likewise." She replied.
"What happened?" Sara asked,
"After I departed around the time the authorities arrived," Nyssa began retelling the events that led to her capture. "I heard movement on the rooftop and before I had the time to react I was subdued. I don't recall how I was brought in to their base of operations but when I was awakened from my sleep, I saw him."
"Paul." He stated,
"Yes." Nyssa confirmed, "He used every imaginable method of torture on me for days to the point where I was at the brink of death. then the Kalet (Bastard in arabic) injected me with a specific type of serum that would restore my health so that he can start over. Then they took me to a operating room, his allies performed several procedures on me."
"Do you remember what they did?" Sara questioned, Nyssa shook her head trying to recall but came up with blank.
"Vaguely." She said, "My memory is unclear at the moment although there was one word I kept hearing, Artemis." Jericho sighed figuring that might have been her answer. But it didn't mean that brought back some painful memories.
"I was worried you might say that. Artemis was a program that was supposed to counter the Wolverine." He explained,
"Wolverine? She was puzzled by the answer but it didn't take long for her to connect the dots given her high intellect. A look of confusion turned into understanding."No…"
She put her hand on his cheek imagining the psychical and psychlogical damage he sustained. "Oh what have they done to you, brother?"
"It's a long story." He said,
"If it hadn't been for Sara…"
"You are not at the fault, Nyssa. You've been induced. Manipulated." Sara knew that Nyssa wasn't in her control, she was being commanded by Conners fortunately she had the will to snap it out of her rage like state.
"It doesn't make the guilt that is eating me from inside fade away. I let my anger get the best of me. it almost cost your life. And his."
"Talia, can I talk to you for a minute?" Talia nodded as they went to nearby Salmon Ladder. He paced slowly back and forth whilst Talia waited patiently for him to talk whatever was on his mind.
"You know this is about right?" he began, "It's not about Oliver. It's about me. this is his way of saying he can do what the hell he wants including being involved in Moira's death and all I can do is to watch from the sideline doing absolutely nothing about it."
"Now is it not the time for any irrational decision, brother." She chastised, "We must regain our focus."
"Believe me I'm trying to keep my cool here." he hissed, rubbing his chin.
"Brother, Sara requests to speak to you now." Nyssa called, judging the tone of her voice it was urgent. They headed back to rejoin them.
"What is it?" Jericho asked,
"When I ran your blood to match those who had passed away." Sara began as she showed names that had the same bloodtype as his and it was quite a list. "I found 12 that carried the same bloodtype as you,all ranging from murders rapists and even small time criminals. So that got me thinking, how did you survive it without suffering any side effects. Well, I discover It turned out the good old Dr. Conners used a Mirakuru plant Hybrid to perfect the Wolverine strain thus eliminating the side effects the original formula has. So I had felicity to contact someone she knew at S.T.A.R. labs to produce a serum that should counter attack both Mirakuru and Wolverine."
"What did you say?" Jericho did a double take at the revelation.
"We are in the process of making a cure."
They had a long conversation on how they're gonna use it to their advantage in taking Paul and Deathstroke down but also on how will it affect Jericho. He knew that the reason why he's still alive and walking was because of the wolverine pumping in his veins. If he's gonna take the cure, He'd probably have a few months to live at best, or at least a year if he's lucky before succumbing to metal poisoning and they came to an agreement that he'd wait with the decision to take it or not. And as far as Paul and Slade is concerned, they knew that the emptied carts Jericho saw that surrounded the few days ago, they got themselves an army at their disposal. And it's only matter of time before they strike.
Just then Diggle and Felicity came in with oliver on his shoulder. He was out cold as he was laid on the operating table. But what was more surprising was the appearance of Laurel Lance behind them.
"This can't be good." Jericho remarked and it wasn't when they filled them in on where Oliver was at. He was staying in a secondary safehouse in case the arrow cave was exposed. He was gonna surrender himself to Slade because he knew there was no way Oliver wouldn't anyone else die on his hands. He called Isabel to inform her that he's gonna be at piers alone but luckily Diggle and Felicity tracked him down and took him out with a tranquilizer dart. He wouldn't admit it but he was lucky that it was Diggle that prevented him from succumbing to pressure otherwise the city would've been lost. If he said the opposite it would've been a lie. And as for Laurel, Slade Wilson dropped by her apartment and revealed of what his intentions were and Oliver's alter ego.
"I'm gonna kill him!" Sara was going to him a piece of her mind, she was pissed and understandably so. Jericho and Nyssa were the two that restrained her from doing that. Nyssa had her arms wrapped around her waist and Jericho kept a firm grip on her hands so that she wouldn't do something reckless even though she had perfectly good reasons for it.
"Hey! Hey! Easy now Sara!" Jericho ordered, "Think about we're gonna do, now calm down." After a few moments of struggling in vain, she eventually calmed herself down before they let her go.
"I just don't get it. Why does he feel the need to throw in the towel now." Felicity shook her head in despair,
"To be spared of his pain, Ms. Smoak." Talia said,
"What?" Felicity uttered blinking a few times.
"When a general has exhausted all of his tactics and lost the will to combat, he seeks one thing. An honorable death to end his pain." Both Talia and Nyssa had seen this too many times in their lifetime, unfortunately.
"Who says he's in pain?"
"A man who has nightmares everyday of his life is in pain." Nyssa stated, glancing at Oliver's unconscious body. Sharing an uneasy glance of what has been said, the arrow team and the Al Ghuls were unsure of what to do it for a while. Suddenly Jericho's cellphone buzzed. he picked it up from his pocket
"Yes finally." He exclaimed, looking at the screen of his cell phone when it buzzed and went to the computer set plugging it in.
"Finally what?" Laurel inquired as they followed him and saw what was on the screens.
"Remember my unexpected visit to Blood office. Well let's just say that I did more than that. I planted a small tap on his desk. I had Barbara to access his files and this is the end result." He stated,
"Impressive." Felicity admired, "Let's see what Our evil mayor have in his data." They saw on the screens a lot of policy papers, old documents from his campaign office and his press releases nothing worth looking on except there was one that caught the MIT graduate's eyes.
"Wait, back up." she pointed to the press release that just flung them by a few moments before. Jericho did as he was told and clicked back to the previous one. "There."
"For immediate release- my thoughts and prayers are with the Queen family in the aftermath of this unspeakable tragedy." Jericho read it out loud, "So he wrote it after she died. "
"No, he didn't. " she said, "Check the time stamp."
"April 23." He read, that was when he knew what importance the date held and everyone else caught on. "That was the day before Slade killed Moira."
"Oh my god." Diggle muttered,
"Sebastian knew Slade was going to kill her." Laurel stated,
"He also knew that he would be elected to the mayor's office right after her assassination." He added, then he pondered of what to do next because now they now know that Blood is the key. How can they know where to find Slade and Reynolds. And then He got it.
"Felicity. How useful are your computer expertise?" He asked,
"What?" She uttered blinking few times as if she heard it right.
"Humor me." Jericho prompted,
"I was top of my graduate class at MIT." She said,
"Good we'll need it." He replied,,
"What for?" Diggle Questioned, Jericho smirked smugly and in the moment Talia knew he's got something up his sleeve.
"You'll see."
"Sara." Sara's eyes flickered and saw Talia standing over her. she was sleeping on the floor with her jacket under her head.
"Talia. What you're doing here?" She asked rubbing any remaining sleep in her eyes yawning while stretching her arms out.
"To see if what my brother had told me was true." Talia answered,
"Oh. I'll just go." It was apparent that she wanted to see her privately so she felt that she could leave but Talia didn't want her to.
"No need. You can stay." Talia reassured as she went to see Nyssa who was still sleeping.
"She hasn't changed." She remarked,
"Psychically." Sara said,
"Seven months. Seven months since the day I left the league." Talia pointed it out, stroking Nyssa's cheek.
"She doesn't hate you." Talia looked to "she resented you at first for leaving her but as time went on, I helped her to let go of her anger. It wasn't easy at first you know how stubborn she was but as we got closer, she let it go eventually because she understood why you did."
"Resentment fades in time once you learned the truth, never fully but enough."
"Thank you, I appreciate it." Mayor Blood was thanking some of the guests that expressed their delight for his in Haruna restaurant for his election victory. He shook hands with them flashing them a grateful smile to each of them before heading to his table where he saw someone occupying it. His smile had faltered a bit once he recognized the unexpected guest. She wore a black dress that reached down to her knee with long brown hair. Green eyes staring into the grey.
"Good evening, Sebastian." Talia greeted, putting her hand on the chin. "May I join you for dinner?"
"Clinton Hogue." Jericho announced as he removed the hood from Clinton's head, Hogue was Blood's bodyguard and the most trusted partner. He was taking the night off orders from the newly elected mayor when Diggle brought him in from the restaurant, he was bound in chair with his hand tied to it, Jericho was sitting in front of him while Dig was circling him unbuttoning his suit sleeves. "We got some questions for you, my friend."
"Go to hell." Clinton spat,
"Halfway there, buddy." Jericho dismissed it with a hand wave, he needs to come up with something new. That threat was so yesterday. "Last chance to come clean, man."
"You think I've never took a beating before?" he scoffed as Diggle leaned into his ear.
"Pal, you're going to wish we beat you." Diggle whispered ominously, cue Felicity Meghan Smoak and Barbara Gordon. they stepped out of the shadow with their personal tablets.
"Hi." she greeted," We'll be your interrogators."
"Is this a joke?" he inquired not really believing that he was being questioned by two women. Especially one of them was in a wheel chair. That was his first mistake. Underestimation.
"Clinton Hogue. Social Security number 306003894." Jericho grinned, ah yes this was going to be fun for them.
"What the hell's this supposed to be?" He asked struggling against his restraints as Felicity walked past him. Diggle rebuttoned his suit sleeve as he stepped aside for them to do their magic.
"Oh, look at this." Felicity said as she opened up his account on the tablet. "You have a bank account in the Cayman Islands. Wow. $2 million, quite the little nest egg." Jericho enjoyed watching them in work, he can see why Oliver likes Felicity being on their side and Barbara, well. He's engaged to her, Felicity pressed on transfer and poof one million dollars transmitted.
"But it looks like you just approved a wire transfer of $1 million to a charity here in Starling City."
"You are quite the humanitarian." Barbara said, amused by Houge's reactions. He was not happy at all. Psychical he can handle but mental torture? That's a different ballgame. She turned to her fiancé. "Honey. What do you think what we should do with the rest?"
Jericho pretended to think for a moment and then he snapped his fingers as if he got an idea.
"Oh I know! Greenpeace." He suggested,
"Perfect." and then she transferred another 1 million dollar to Greenpeace on. Jericho could practically see steam coming out of Hogue's ears. It was fun to watch. "And they want to express their gratitude for the support."
"You bitches!" He fired, burning holes with a hateful glare.
"Bitches with WiFi." Felicity fired back,
"Preach!" Barbara praised as she bump fisted with Felicity. "By the way, Your parents have a very impressive retirement portfolio." His eyes widened in horror, oh no. they wouldn't even dare. "Too bad they are about to make some really bad investments."
"Ok, wait. just wait…just…stop!" he gave up, it's one thing that your offshore accounts get cleaned out but your parents retirement portfolio? That's where it really hurts.
"What do you want to know?" he sighed in resignation Jericho grinned in victory.
"Congratulations Mr. Blood on becoming the new mayor, although I wish that it would've occurred under different cirumstances." Talia acclaimed, taking a sip from her drink.
"Believe me so do I, Ms. Head." he told, "Where's Bruce? "
"He's heading back home to Gotham. He has some business meetings to attend to but he sends his congratulations to you." Blood nodded in acknowledgement though the look on face told her that his mind was somewhere else. "What's wrong, Blood? Shouldn't you be honored that you are now the mayor of Starling City. "
"I am. I just wish that would've happened a different way. Mrs Queen and I were enemies no doubt but we both shared same goal and that is to help Starling City find its heart back. That I can promise you."
"Of course but do you think that they would approve of your cause?" A look of confusion etched on his face not really understanding what was she saying. She propped herself over the table to get her point across "Slade Wilson and Paul Reynolds."
"How do you know I've been working with them?" he demanded, uneasiness shown in his eyes as his shoulders tensed. Talia smirked a bit.
"Because you have met my brother Jericho." He chuckled shaking his head. as everything made sense of why she was at the restaurant and how she knew about his alliance with them. Didn't see that one coming.
"Of course, it all makes sense now." He said, "Talia Al Ghul the daughter of the infamous Ra's Al Ghul is sitting right in front of me."
"I see you are well informed." She pointed it out, "Mayor Blood, are you truly blind of the promise that you think after they has unleashed their terror upon this city that there will be one to save?"
"They'll only cause enough damage to make the city ready." He said
"Ready for what?" she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"For my vision of what this city could be." he told her "A better city. And after the storm they're about to suffer, the people of Starling will support and follow me to that city."
"Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, I know the men Mr. Wilson and Reynolds are."she argued, "They don't have any regards for politics. You are just a puppet in their plot. Whatever they promised you is a lie."
"They promised me City Hall and They delivered." He reaffirmed, Talia could only shake her head at him, disappointed that they led him to believe their word over hers. "They make good on their promises. When it's all set and done, I will lead the people of this city to a new era. An Era of peace and there's nothing you can do to stop it." He rose out of his seat confident about his plan after the dust had settled as he was about to exit the restaurant but Talia wasn't finished with him yet.
"You are more delusional than I initially thought you to be, Mr. Mayor." She remarked, "Hitler for an example as cunning as he was on how to persuade and manipulate an entire nation to follow his principals, he never really learned from his errors and always believed that he's in the right and they are wrong. He was a very poor tactician who greatly underestimated his enemy. Al Capone believed himself to be invisible; nobody dared to face him because he inflicts fear. But then the Chicago authorities discovered that he hasn't paid taxes for his income in several years. So they built a case on it and that proved to be his downfall when he was sentenced on june 16 1931."
"Your point?" he failed to see where she was going with this. she smirked as he was unaware that she had something on him.
"Every great man has an Achilles tendon so the question is what is yours?" he shook his head in amusement at the futile attempt of trying to get something out of him.
"I can assure you, Talia that I have none." He said,
"Perhaps." she shrugged, "Or if The police had the opportunity o really look hard enough in your father's murder, they would've compared the fingerprints on the gun that killed him and they would've realized that the prints didn't belong to your mother. They were yours." His confident façade fell and fear appeared in his eyes. Wait a minute how did she know? There was no way that she could know the truth about what really happened does she?
"You're bluffing." He said,
"Am I?" she retorted arching a eyebrow as she dared him.
"How even do you know all this?" he hissed,
"You're not the only one who has friends in high places." She got out of her seat and went to exit the restaurant but not before she stopped by Blood to whisper one last thing in his ear.
"And by way. My friends sent emails that contained evidence against you to every member of the City Council regarding the illegal fundings to your campaign. Your press release that was written the day before Moira Queen's assassination and your involvement in Emil Conners illegitimate projects. By the time they have finished reading it they will have no choice but to impeach you from your position and Starling city will abhor you." She walked past him and exited the restaurant, leaving Blood outthought and outplayed. It seemed that tonight had gone a bit sour. Game, set, match.
"How did it go?" Talia asked her brother soon after her encounter with Blood at the restaurant in the cave. He'd just put on jacket when she showed up.
"We got the location." He revealed, craning his neck from side to side. "They're gonna use the sewers to enter the city at 9 P.M."
"What's the plan?" she questioned,
"Oliver and Dig is rigging bombs in their hideout both from the outside and in." Jericho told her,
"So they'll detonate simultaneously." She concluded, "Clever."
"Well until the cure shows up, we gotta do anything it takes to slow them down." Well she couldn't argue that point. Then she frowned noticing Nyssa's absence. Sara was on sight to see if Slade or Paul made any move yet.
"Where's Nyssa?" Jericho sighed as he went to explain why.
"That's the thing. She left before we formed the plan." He told her, Talia shook her head in discontent as she knew her motives. She's out for revenge and she'll do anything it takes to achieve it. "I planted a tracker in case she went AWOL again. Barbara tracked her down. She's at the piers."
"What are we waiting for then?" They left the base and headed back up to the upper level in a hurry.
"In there." He pointed to the warehouse the far one to left when they have arrived. That's was where the tracker last sent it's location. They headed it out and once they entered, they saw bodies of hired mercenaries with arrow on their chest. Yep, Nyssa was here all right. But why? Then they heard someone being brutally beaten coming from the office. Not wasting any more precious time, they headed straight to the office which was at the right. Jericho busted the door open and saw Nyssa beating the living crap of Dr. Conner's. his face was a mess, his cheeks and eyes were swollen, blood pouring out of his nose.
"Nyssa!" Talia shouted, Nyssa looked up to see her siblings with fire in her eyes.
"Let him go."
"No! He has to suffer for what he's done to us!" she snapped,
"Nyssa, stand down." Talia commanded,
"No." she growled,
"Look this doesn't have to go like this, alright? Please, put him down. We need your help." Jericho reasoned, Nyssa shook her head no,
"No you don't. You never have. Sometimes I wonder who I hate the most, you for tarnishing our family honor or myself for being weak and questionable. I've come to realize that was not the case. You must be disgusted for what I have become. An monster. Do you have the slightest imagination of i go through watching my siblings get to live, to love? I can't do that..."
"Look, just hold on." Jericho interjected, She was a bit taken back by the harsh tone in his voice, he recomposed himself, softening his tone a bit. "Do you seriously think that? Because none of it is true. Look, I know we had our differences in the past, hell I've done some things that I'm not proud of but Nyssa, come on… I let Paul go to save you. Hell, I'm willing to let this bastard and the son of bitches that killed my mom walk because don't you dare say that in the past or present I would put anyone before you or anybody from my family. it's never been like that ever. I need you to understand that." During his emotional speech, tears were starting to build in her eyes? He doesn't hate her? He still regards her as family?
"Nyssa, please. If not for us, then for Sara." Talia begged, That seemed do enough for her as Nyssa let go of him and went to hug them at the same time letting tears flow freely.
"How nice." He mocked, chuckling darkly as he weakly got back up, they separated. "But I'm afraid that I'm gonna have to cut this little family moment short." He pressed a button that he held in his hand to activate bombs that were placed on the walls on his computer but that wasn't the problem. It was something else. Jericho's heart stopped when he saw who it was on the computer screen. it was the Russian.
"Al Ghuls, Вас ждет ад" (Hell awaits you)
"Kravchenko." Jericho murmured.
I'm Back! What a way to start off the new year with a brand new chapter.
Here's a preview from the very last chapter.
"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." Talia began
"He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." Nyssa continued,
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." Jericho prolonged,
"Amen." They concluded in unison.